Lawrence, Kansas, 22 years ago...
Sam and Dean's back story is a truly sad one, losing their mom at such young ages and the profound difference in the lives the remaining Winchesters would all lead as the result. It starts as such a happy, normal family evening. Then, Mary just has to go check on Sam when he cries. Everything that sucks and rocks about their lives starts from this tipping point.
We then cut to modern-day Stanford University, where Sam is enrolled as a freakishly smart would-be law school student, with a bright future and an awesome girlfriend in Jessica Moore. Yes, it certainly looks like Sam has a very nice, normal life, if he does have the small downside of not talking to his family since they sort of stopped talking to him. But he has an interview on Monday that if he gets accepted he'll have a full-ride for law school, so life is still awesome.
Sam and Jess are asleep that night when Sam is awoken by a crash in the house.
And here we meet his big brother, Dean, who chooses the middle of the night and the excuse of looking for a beer to burst in on his little brother. Jess, in her undies and shirt, comes to see what the commotion is and meets Dean, who very respectfully (if with some noticeable difficulty) keeps is eyes on hers. They introduce themselves and discuss Dean's mutual love of the smurfs, who adorn Jess' (revealingly cut-open) shirt. Dean then says he needs a word with Sam, could they have a moment but Sam says at first she can hear whatever Dean has to say. The next lines are among some of Dean's most quoted, not because they're funny, but because the emotional scar tissue all starts with:
Although Sam tries to downplay the seriousness of this statement, Dean is convinced something is amiss, and Sam asks Jess to give them a moment. He then tries over and over again to persuade Dean their Dad will show up eventually and everything ill be fine. They dispute back forth the fact that their raising was not normal, while Dean tries to defend- maybe not his actions, but his reasons. Sam feels their Dad robbed them of their childhoods while Dean believes they did what needed to be done. My favorite gem of this part of the conversation?
Dean states he feels this time is different from the others when John went missing because he found something important. Dean says he can't do it on his own. Sam corrects him, saying he can in fact, do it on his own. Dean admits yes he could, but he doesn't want to. Dean's vulnerability in that moment more than anything else seems to win Sam over and he reluctantly agrees. With a few conditions...
First, he has his appointment Monday he needs to be back for. Second, only to find Dad, then he's going to come back to his safe, normal life. When Dean asks about the Monday morning meeting, Sam is reluctant to tell him about Law School, since he knows Dean doesn't respect the choice. Second is that he's just going to find John, then he's going back to his safe, normal life.
He packs up and assures Jess over and over he'll only be gone for a few days, he'll make it back in time for his interview and he's sure their dad is just sleeping off a good buzz. With a kiss, he leave the normal life to run this errand with his brother.
Dean has been traveling with their dad's car, a 1967 Chevy Impala for some time, using his dad's tapes that they've listened to over and over again. Sam gives him a hard time, but Dean's "shotgun shuts his cake hole" speech brooks no opposition, (brothers. *eyeroll*) and they get on their merry way. They know from a file of missing persons and a voicemail John left Dean and EVP, or Electro-magnetic Voice Phenomenon, that their Dad was last in Jericho, California, hunting something.
While they drive, Dean calls sam "Sammy," which Sam snaps at him for. They discuss the missing persons, what they might have in common, apart from all being men and all disappearing from the same five-mile stretch of road. Arriving in Jericho, they speak (somewhat disrespectfully) to the local police using fake US Marshall badges and get the info on the latest disappearance, which local sheriffs are in the middle of investigating.
They get the down-low from the latest missing person's girlfriend that there's a rumor about a ghost haunting the highway who was murdered out there when she was hitchhiking and once she has you she never lets you go. They boys take this information to the local library and look up the area newspaper.
Dean strikes out a few times trying to find a murder of a female hitchhiker on that road, but Sam steps in and changes it from murder to suicide, since both deaths are violent and may cause unrest with a spirit. This is the first time we see Sam's research skill come in handy and he gets the right answer first try. A local woman, Constance, committed suicide back in 1981 after her children drowned in the bathtub by accident.
They go to the place where she jumped, the same bridge the car of the last victim was found abandoned on, and are checking the place out. They end up in an argument about their parents and their lives, Sam saying he doesn't even know what Mary looks like if it weren't for pictures and their dad is obsessed with finding her killer. In the middle of their fight, they catch a glimpse of the ghost. She jumps over the edge, and while Sam and Dean run to see where she went, Baby's lights come on. Sam asks who's driving the car, and Dean's face when he hold up the only key is priceless. Like he would rather give anything in the world for his car to not be possessed. After a short case scene, they both flee over the railing to avoid being hit. Sam holds on to the edge, but Dean falls a short distance to the shallow over below, landing in mud.
The motel they rent once there is by luck (or one of the frequently-seen Winchester secrets) the same one John has booked a room under an alias. They break in and find their dad's papers wall-papering the room. It's been at least a couple of days since he was there, though. Dean surmises from the clues on John's papers that she is a Woman in White, a very specific type of ghost. They decide their next step after Dean showers is to go speak with her husband. That's what John would have done, after all. Before Dean goes to the shower, Sam tries to apologize for what he said earlier.
Hands down, this is the most popular quote of the whole serise. They can't say "I love you," like normal family would, so they adopt a more abbraisve way for showing their affection. Dean showers and decides he's going to go get a bite to eat, but Sam says he'll stay behind at the motel and sort through the paper work.
As Dean leaves, he is stopped by a local sheriff, who is looking for a connection to the disappearances. The hotel manager points out who Dean is as he's leaving, but Dean amanges enough time to call Sam and give him heads-up in Winchester code that he's being talen in yb the police, giving Sam a chance to slip away. This conversation between the sheriff and Dean cracks me up.
Dean is taken to the sheriff's station and held, handcuffed to a table, while they ask him about their Dad's journal and the wired stuff inside that motel room. Dean does a great job dismissing the questions the sheriff is asking, including when he points out a series of numbers, latitude and longitude, an old trick form his Marine Core days, which Dean hopes tells them where he is. He insists to the sheriff he has no idea what it is. The sheriff has o step out to take a call, and leaves Dean with the journal to think over his answers. Silly government, don't ever think a Winchester is unarmed or secured. Ever. Locks and self defense are second-nature to them. Anyway, Dean uses a paperclip from the journal to pick the handcuffs and escapes with it. As he leaves he calls Sam.
I've thought it for a long time: two things contribute to how well the Winchesters in general know each other, but most specifically Sam and Dean. First, they are the son of a paranoid ex-Marine. There are lots of places you could say John failed in his job as a father to his two boys, but one thing he did do correctly is prepare them to survive in the harsh reality that they live in. He made sure their contingency plans had contingency plans.
Secondly, they spent so much time driving on the road, coming up with scenarios and what they would do if they ever encountered this, that, or twelve others. I can assure you they talked about more than just their music on their journey. Lets face it, they don't drive around discussing their feelings constantly, that's for sure.
So anyway, Sam saves Deans bacon and then tells him about the unfaithfulness of the husband in he ghost story so they confirm it is a Woman in White they're looking for. But why hasn't John burned the corpse yet? sam wonders. Dean- who keeps trying to be heard over his brother's rattling of information, is finally stopped and Dean drops the bomb- he found their father's journal, which he is never without and they discuss the coordinates and that he's definitely left the town.
About this time, Sam drives through Constance, their ghost of the week, and she appears in the car, demanding to be taken home. Sam refuses, at first, but goes when an idea strikes him. He pulls into the driveway with her in the car, asking again and again to be taken home, even though she adds she can never go home. Sam realizes that the reason she can't go home is because she has to face the kids and she is too scared to. As she attacks him, kissing him and trying to injure his heart, he points out she can't because he has never been unfaithful. She says he will be and they resume the struggle. Dean shows up and shoots the ghostly image of Constance with rock salt through the open window several times before he hurts her enough for her to leave.
Through all of this, Sam as been trying to reach the key in the ignition. He finally reaches it and drives the car straight through the wall. Yeah. She releases him once they are inside, and Dean comes following, checking to see if Sam is okay and helps him out of the car. Constance walks over to pick up a framed picture of she and her children, dread filling her face. She gives Sam and Dean quality bitchface and tosses the picture aside, casting a piece of furniture to pin then against the wall. The lights start to flicker, and Constance becomes fearful again. She turns, and the camera follows over her shoulder to the flight of stairs, where water is pouring down from the floor above. Her children stand at the top, silhouetted and obviously a little angry to see the mother who killed them. They appear at the bottom of the stairs and Constance screams as they lunge at her, and she disappears into a burst of purple-ish flame, leaving only a puddle behind.
With Constance gone, the furniture pinning the boys down is easily turned over and they step up to inspect the puddle. So this is where she drowned her kids, and that's why she could never go home. The boys take moment to discuss the case, then Dean claps Sam hard on the shoulder (brothers), and tells him what a great job he did, deciding to take her in the house. Sam then asks why Dean shot her in the face when that wouldn't work. Saved your ass, he replies, then starts checking out Baby to make sure she's okay. "I'm you screwed up my car, I'll kill you."
One headlight down, but luckily, Baby is okay otherwise as they drive off down the road again, discussing what to do next. Johns' coordinates say he's in Black Water Ridge, Colorado, and Dean wants to leave immediately, but Sam gets quiet, and remoinds him that they agreed he would go back to Stanford. Sam insistants he has to be there, so Dean reluctantly agrees to take him back.
As Dean pulls the Impala up alongside the dorm and Sam gets out, they have some false promises about meeting up again later, which both seem to dismiss as neevr going to happen even as they agree with each other. Dean calls Sam back, aparently deciding to say something real tohis baby brother in this moment, and eloquenty says "We made a hell of a team back there." Sam agrees, and watches Dean drive off.
Back in his dorm, Sam calls out for Jess, who doesn't answer. Not seeing her around, he flops back on the bed with his eyes closed, taking a moment to relax. The tickle of something dripping on his head make him open his eyes to relaize his girlfriend is pinned tot he ceiling, just like their mother had been. Jess and the dorm burst into flames asSam calls out to her, and Dean kicks open the door, seeing Sam and the fire within. Dean forcibly pushing Sam is the only thing that makes him leave her.
Outside, after fire crews responded, Dean comes to join Sam by the trunk of the Impala, where he is standing probabaly in a bit of a daze. "We have work to do," he says as he tosses the shotgun he was holding into the trunk and closes it.
**SPOILERS**
So, a few things I would like to address. First, the pin picture I use are not mine, I'm not responsible for any of them and I don't own any of them. I just like having help telling the story. Everything form here down wilt this being the pilot episode l be my original thoughts and ideas about the episodes and so fourth, though they may be influenced by things from Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest, since those are the media sources I use the most.
First of all, this being the pilot episode, I feel like it did very well telling the monster of the week story and also starting to establish the filler/plot line moving flow of the show. Of course, with Jess and Mary's death scenes, it's a tough one. Lots of sadness and as the show progresses through Seasons, you see what exactly these two characters mean to the boys and to the show in general. I like the direction of this episode, like when they are at the house in the end and she makes that beautiful body movement that the camera follows up the stairs. She does that creepy twisting movement that lots of horror movies were using at the time, which is terrifying and indescribably beautiful.
Secondly, I would really love to know what the ghost is attacking Sam because he was going to be unfaithful when exactly that has happened. I have watched the entire show- twice- all the way through, since October of last year (2014) and I watch the episodes when I catch them on TNT and occasionally just random ones on Netflix. I have never seen any episode where Sam cheats because Sam is a really good guy. Did the Kripke sect forget about that? Or, maybe her kissing him counted as cheating in her mind. If anyone has any definitive answers, please send them along, I am clueless.
As far as long-running quotes form this episode, we have a few gems, like Dean's "No chick flick moments" and, of course that is followed by the consistent "jerk and "bitch" lines, which get used for a very long time to come. It's one of the quirks of these siblings that the fandom can't get enough of. Even though these statements disappeared with Dean's jewelry around the fifth or sixth seasons, Fans still cling to the sentiments. Jensen explained in a recent panel that the boys have actually moved pas their need to use them, even though they don't exactly say I love you like normal people, either.
Other long-time remembered quotes are "driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cake hole." This quote by Dean is a huge one, easily in the top ten and probably second to the Winchester family business quote from a few episodes in for popularity. "Dad's on a hunting trip and hasn't been home in a few days" is probably not far under that for the same reason, it sort of starts the boys on the path and that's what keeps them going when the chips are down, that your brother is counting on you. The mark of a good relationship is one person ale to hold it together when the other isn't so that you have support, and the boys are good at that.
These are all of the things I can think about that I wanted to discuss. I will add more if I feel like there's something else that dans on me. I had lots of thoughts when i was watching the episode, but that was a week ago, so things have changed. I guess I'll have to watch it again. :) Goodnight, kids!!
